Coming from an architect in whose mature work form would reveal function, this "overpowering fireplace in an Anglo-French Renaissance manner" (Kay 28) from Lethaby's days in Norman Shaw's office seems something of a curiosity. [Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links. Commentary continues below.]

Another commentator also notes that this "elaborately carved marble fireplace ... is a perhaps surprising early work from the critic who would later eschew useless decoration," but rightly points out that "Lethaby embodied numerous artistic contradictions" (MacCarthy). In fact, the French Renaissance style, here evoked with a host of cherubs, two female figures seated on swags, and swags and scrolls containing a plethora of fruit, flowers and leaves, seems to have had a special appeal for Lethaby. He had been influenced by the same style in his prize-winning design for the Soane competition a few years before. Moreover, Lethaby was also fascinated by the work of William Burges (see Rubens 56), who loved nothing better than to design a chimney-piece that was the focus of the whole room.

Perhaps it is wrong, too, to focus only on the decorative aspect. The structural elements provide relief, and are more typical of the architect whose turn-of-the-century work and teaching would herald modernism: the clear outlining of the chimney-piece with its supporting pilasters and columns; above them the stepped cornice, with the lowest rank of cherubs acting as sets of corbels; on the hood itself the bold central rectangle emphasized by its elaborate frame, and, at each side, the curved panels again emphasizing the structure. The top too is curved and stepped, with the ceiling of the inglenook echoing it in its lines as well as in its rich sculptural detail. The chimney-piece is not simply elaborate in its design, but rational as well. — Jacqueline Banerjee